I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
When the Committee of the Whole of the Lansing City Council meets today, the council members will be taking a close look at the $132 million in various projects which Lansing Mayor Virgil Bernero’s administration has floated for funding through the federal economic stimulus package. Bernero has already submitted the same list to the U.S. Conference of Mayors as “ready to go”.
It appears the mayor produced this list of proposals without prior consultation with the city council; you can expect the love fest which happened at the mayor’s State of the City address Monday to be replaced by sparks. In conversations with Michigan Messenger, council members indicated they question the priorities of the items in the proposal; they want to know why some projects, like more road work, were passed over in favor of economic projects already under development with established funding, or in favor of projects more nebulous in outline.
There are a number of project lists floating around itemizing Lansing’s priorities for federal funds, including this list on the Michigan Municipal League’s website as well as the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ website, the Ingham County Road Commission’s list and the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission‘s list (not available at their website). It does not appear that these four lists have been coordinated and resolved into a single list as yet.
It’s anticipated that city council members will question certain line items in the mayor’s list because of what might be labeled inconsistencies. Why do improvements for the Capital Regional International Airport, located not in Lansing but in neighboring Clinton County appear on the list, for example? Why does an airport project related to improving homeland security not appear under requests for DHS or public safety monies, if under Lansing at all?
We’ll have more on the outcome of today’s meeting, scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. — stay tuned. We’ll have plenty more on “shovel-ready” versus “shovel-worthy” projects.
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